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Operators at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar Nuclear Plant returned Unit 1 to power production Tuesday morning, May 9, signaling the safe conclusion of a planned refueling and maintenance outage that will help ensure operation for the next 18 months.

In addition to replacing 80 of the unit's 193 fuel assemblies, Watts Bar employees - supported by an additional 800 TVA and contract personnel - completed more than 10,000 work activities, including upgrades to Unit 1's turbine, inspections of the unit's reactor equipment and steam generators, maintenance of plant equipment and installation of additional enhancements to improve reliability.

"The work we performed in this outage puts Unit 1 in the best position to continue to safely generate carbon-free, low-cost energy around the clock," said Watts Bar Site Vice President Paul Simmons. "Our team members your neighbors are very proud of the work they do every day to safely serve the people and businesses of the Tennessee Valley."

At full capacity, Watts Bar's two units produce more than 2,300 megawatts of low-cost reliable energy; enough power for 1.3 million average homes. Collectively, TVA's seven nuclear units provide more than one-third of all the power used by the more than 9 million consumers in its seven-state service area.

For more information about TVA and its 83-year mission of service to the Tennessee Valley, click here.